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Subject:
From:
Rachel Myr <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:47:10 +0100
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Julie Taylor asks what other institutions have replaced the advertising bags
with, so that breastfeeding mothers don't feel left out by not getting a
'free' diaper bag.

First, I think it is meaningless to ban the bags only to mothers who have
initiated breastfeeding in the hospital.  Why should any mothers view it as
positive that the institution in which they have given birth is in a mutual
back-scratching relationship with one particular company?  Should they not
be concerned that the information they get is impartial, and based on
factual information?  Maybe a mother who isn't breastfeeding would think
twice about it if she realized that the hospital is not giving her a swell
present as a token of genuine affection when it foists this bag on her, it
is fulfilling a Faustian obligation to a third party whose interests have
virtually no overlap with her interests or those of her baby.  You might
want to find out where the bags are actually made too.  Would the board be
comfortable handing them out if it turned out they were sewn by child slaves
in Asia, for example?  I am not sure I want to know the answer to that last
question.

How would the hospital's standing in the community be affected if it were to
come out in the press that the reason they are using Brand X product in
their NICU is not because it has been documented to be the best, but because
they cut the best deal with that company in exchange for selling out mothers
in the maternity unit?  

The diaper bag is not free.  It is more like a Trojan horse.  And it is paid
for by every person who has ever bought that brand of milk powder.  You can
bet your own paycheck that the company whose logo is on it has calculated
the cost-benefit ratio and found that it comes out in their favor, along
with the trinkets and snacks they provide to maternity care staff.  

How about a congratulatory card on which is printed the cost savings to them
and their insurance company in the first year of the breastfed baby's life,
with a simple explanation of how much the 'free' bag really costs the
recipients?  And how about a card to put into the advertising bags that says
'We hope this token of our gratitude to you for continuing to market the
product our hospital uses will make up for the increased expenses for health
care incurred throughout your child's life because you are using that
product yourself.'  

Probably wouldn't fly with the board.  But it would be fun to try. 

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway 

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